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Whilst absolutely understanding and appreciating the difficulty in reading these figures in a vacuum, I would like to suggest that they are likely to be merely a single aspect of the fundraising efforts of any one of the listed organisations, and, when compared to the acquisition costs of new donors through other avenues (media advertising, annual events, mass mailing, etc), they may not be as dramatically damning as the headline would like us to think.

The missing number to understand the value of the telemarketing is “lifetime value” — the amount the donor will give to the cause over the course of time. The acquisition costs are often more than the first gift amount. This is true of most sources of new donors, including direct mail, online, and telemarketing. So it could be really bad, or it could be just fine. This information isn’t enough to know the difference.

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